Companion site to Creating Digital History (NYU GA HIST.2033)

My Evernote Review

In today’s world, there is an endless supply of digital tools and applications. These digital tools provide a means of organization and accessibility. Prior to this class, Creating Digital History, I had never used nor heard of Evernote. Throughout my entire career as a student, I have created notes the old fashioned way, paper and pencil (well mostly pens). Overall, I have found Evernote to be easy to use as well as a useful tool for organizing notes and for saving research. Personally, I do find that I often forget about Evernote outside of class. This could be due to the fact that I am not completely used to using it just yet. At the beginning of the semester, I made a conscious effort to use Evernote for all of my note taking, both in class and outside of class time. I would organize my thoughts about the assigned readings via Evernote and would add to those notes in class during discussion time.

When I began researching for the digital archive, I used Evernote to brainstorm and save documents for future use. I have found it useful for working with documents in an archive, because of its search capabilities and features. When I want to return to an object or note at a later date, I can search for it in Evernote. Evernote assists with organization and keeping track of previous notes or web clippings. Unfortunately, I recognize that as a user I have not used Evernote to its complete potential as a resource. In the future I will make more of an effort to tag my notes. The tagging feature will make searching in Evernote even more enjoyable. Tags make notes easily accessible; especially as your notebook continues to grow.

Overall I have dabbled with the web clipper feature. The web clipper is a way to integrate Evernote into your Internet research. The web clipper essentially saves information directly to your Evernote notebook. There are various ways of saving with web clipper (PDF, screenshot, links, etc.). I also like that there is an Evernote app. I downloaded it to my iPhone, but to be honest, I have not really used it. I have found that it is much simpler to use Evernote on my laptop. If I had a tablet, I might enjoy the application more – due to the screen size, etc.

Evernote is an useful tool for saving information and its use of “notebooks” creates an accessible space for your research and notes. I think with continual and consistent use, Evernote could easily become a staple tool in my academic career – potentially as a professional tool. I will definitely continue to use Evernote for research and gathering Internet search information because of the web clipper feature. I will also try to be more consistent with the tagging feature as a means to beef up the search ability of my notes. The app makes it easy to take Evernote on the go! There is no longer a need to carry around notebooks and pens. Evernote not only helps organize notes, but it also helps alleviate back pain caused by overly stuffed backpacks.